New dad's out there?

I have nothing to contribute because my wife and I are expecting our first child in February as well.


I will say that getting the nursery ready for the baby can cost a good chunk of money depending on how much furniture you have to buy.

Health Ins, co-pays, medicine, butt cream, 529(if you choose to do so) ...

Take everything you or your wife spend money on yourselves doing/expenses and think of a way you could do the same with a child. Someone out there is trying to convince you to spend your money every which way you can on your kid. No matter the list you conceive there is always more.

Enjoy every minute with them. My boy is 16mo and it's awesome. I wish I could slow time down already.

And with daycare your kid will constantly be sick. Make sure to save some to cover that.

I'll be in the same boat come May

My son is almost 3 months. So far we've gotten most everything from my wife's shower. Just switched exclusively to formula so that adds about $150 or so a month. My wife isn't going back to work so that hits hard too. Adding him to my insurance wasn't much, but adding both brought it up by $300. Luckily I just got a promotion. When he starts growing out of his 3-6 month clothes, I have a feeling more costs will show up. To be honest, it costs less than I thought (note thay we do not pay for daycare at the moment)

Congrats man, you have no idea what love is until you see that kid. It's amazing.

-Clothes:

-Dreft detergent: You'll be doing a small load of laundry probably everyday

-Coffee

-Medicine (gas drops, saline spray, butt cream, etc...)

-Dr. visits (co-pay): Damn these co-pay's

-Diapers - depending on how many showers you have. This won't be as bad as you think. You can exchange them at Babies R Us and all the other places for the most part, as long as they aren't opened.

-Wipes: You'll go through a lot at first

Tips:
-Sign up for Amazon Prime and Amazon Mom. Mom is free with the Prime membership. Start looking into putting thing things on monthly delivery. And I would even go ahead and start monthly delivery of size 1 diapers. We prefer Pampers Swaddlers. It'll save you a little money and a LOT of effort. You want to make everything as easy as possible during that time.

-If you have a dog or cat, go buy 2 - 3 months of pet food in advance because that'll be the last thing you think about.

My son grew out of newborn diapers and clothes in less than a week! He was born 8 lbs 12 oz so that had a lot to do with it, but they don't wear that stuff long at all. Don't get cases of newborn diapers like i did. Get small packs.

Good advice here, let me add a few things to consider (my kids are now 6 and 3)

1) Breastmilk/formula - I would budget as if you will use formula from day one. Yes, your wife plans to breast feed initially - but stuff happens. With our first, my wife planned on breast feeding for 6 months. She made it three days - and those were tough - until the docs basically told her she needed to go to formula. She was just unable to produce any reasonable amount of breast milk. That was an immediate monthly expense of about $150 that we were not planning on. If it turns out she can breastfeed - great - you just got a raise, but I'd budget as if she can't.

2) Neither kid ever could stand generic formula - it was Similac all the way. For diapers, though, after about 6 months, they were fine with the Babies R Us brand of diapers. Every other generic diaper gave them bad rashes, but the RRU ones were fine. As they get bigger, the number of diapers in the box goes down, but not at the same daily diaper use rate, so you end up having to spend more on diapers during the 6-12 month period, and then it comes down.

3) About a month before baby comes, start going on all the diaper and formula websites and sign up on them. They will start to send you all kinds of stuff including some good coupons and formula checks. A formula check is kind of like a coupon but it's an actual check, so you can use it at Sams.

4) Is your wife's maternity leave fully paid? If not, you will need to adjust for that.

5) I would also budget for going over your allocated vacation days at work the first year. Kids are sick all the time especially if they are in daycare (although, being in those places builds up their immunity so while they get sick a lot the first year or so, they actually are much healthier as toddlers). My job let me "borrow" time from the next year, but my wife's did not, so she ended up not getting paid for a few days off.

6) People say you will dine out less - this is true - but you will also be so tired you won't ever want to cook. We ate a lot of take out in those first few months of each child. I was on a first name basis with the to-go people at Olive Garden and Outback.

Good luck!! Exciting time!

You can start buying diapers now for the next year. Just buy different sizes and put them in a closet.

Photos or a camera. Good Lord that stuff gets expensive.

Also, for their first birthday they are going to get a ton of stuff. If any of that can be saved for Christmas throw it in a closet. They won't know.